CHAPTER 2

Jason sat in the class, bringing out his iPod trying listening to music in a fruitless effort to tune out the noise of his classmates, he could barely hear the lyrics. Feeling someone tap him on the shoulder as he turned in response, in his front were the only two friends he had in the school. A tall chocolate skinned girl and a gruffly looking boy with dark hair sat smiling at him, he managed a smile,

"so, what’s bothering you?" the girl asked,

Terra, his brown haired female best friend was a bombshell, category A disaster class if she walked down the hall way during recess, Jason was pretty sure half the school football team wanted to date her and the nerds would have her featuring in their fantasies almost on a daily basis. Terra rectir was tall, bright blue eyes, full lips, a shape to die for and had the brains to back it off as she was the schools leading student in their science department, he had seen more than a few girls give her the stink eye as she walked past, not that she bothered anyways.

His other male best friend, daren tejel was built like a tank, which coincidentally was also what he was called by the school football team. Muscles in all the right places with the speed to back it up, he had the coach of the football team heartbroken and bewildered by declining a spot in the team, this of course came after he left more than half the team eating sand and a few of them out of commission for days. They had met on the first day of high school and had suddenly clicked, like they had known each other all their lives.

He was the only plain one among them, while he was no slouch in the looks department and having the muscular build of a sprinting athlete, Jason for some reason just never stood out of the crowd.

  "aunt finally wants to spill" he replied, they leaned closer, shock drawn all over their face,

"really?" they said in unison.

Raising an eyebrow at their inquisitiveness, watching with amusement as they leaned in close, he shrugged,

"I don't know why Terra, all she said was she wanted to tell me" he replied.

Terra beat her fingers on the table, her mind far away,

"so that means you're going to be nice to her right?" daren asked,

" I guess so daren, but something else happened" he said dipping his arm into his pocket to retrieve the gem.

Looking around to ensure no eyes were on him, he beckoned them closer to himself.

He considered telling them about it, would they call him nuts?, but he had no one else to tell and he would go crazy if he didn't talk.

He brought out the gem which surprisingly did not shine, he saw a look of dread on both Terra and Darens faces, something was definitely wrong with them.

They were acting weird, Daren glanced around before asking him what it was, but Jason already had a feeling that he knew what it was,

"well.... I had this weird dream of a guardian..." he said telling them the story from when he woke up, to the dream and the gem.

While he was grateful for their taking him seriously, he was a little bothered that they didn't look at him in a crazy way, like it was normal to them. When he got to the spell part and tried to recite it, they held him down, telling him not to, eyes widen in alarm as daren looked around,

"why?, it's probably just a dud or something" he said, not that he believed it himself though, but he had to try, for his sanity.

 Terra shook her head fervently, " I don't think that's a good idea, just keep it for now. We'll talk about it later" she said, eyes pleading to him,

 " what are you hiding from me?" he asked,

 they were too calm about this, daren motioned to talk but was cut off by the teacher entering the class, they stood up and left, not with terra whispering in his ear,

"no matter what you do, don't tell anyone about it" she said,

 he nodded and kept it back in his pocket, he brought out his books with a frustrated look, his life just kept getting complicated.....

The backyard of the house belonging to the town mayor swirled as a dark ring ripped open in the fabric of time, it rotated in an anticlockwise manner.

Captain regron stepped out of the portal and into the sunny weather, he grunted in anger as the sunlight repelled him. With a swish of his arm, the sky darkened and turned grey, two shadow warriors stepped out of the portal. Even though he was able to withstand the sunlight as it only weakened him, it could do serious damage to them. The two warriors were dressed in black suits with a line of red colour running through their shoulders, he thought it would be wise not to underestimate the Prince, after all he was rumoured to be a part of illummino himself, a story he had yet to find out himself.

 That was why he brought the arm of Herega or better known as veratus, an elite set of shadow warriors bred in the depth of the abyss and accessible to only to the commanders of the shadow order and Marxis, it took a lot of energy to summon them to this realm, especially one that had little magic like earth. He motioned to one who stepped forward,

"where?" he said,

The warrior sniffed the air and growled, in a wisp of black smoke, he transformed into a four foot tall wolf. Another growl emanated from its throat as a signal to follow, they moved through the edges of the gardens before the wolf stopped looking forward, regron nodded and stepped out in time to see a car enter a drive way, he immediately felt a strong aura, one that surpassed any other he felt, except for Marxis himself. It felt royal, he smiled a little and made to move forwards when he caught himself looking at a female person, he frowned. This was not right, he was looking for a prince and not a female, unless...he'd found her!.

Marxis would be so pleased with him, not only had he found the Prince as he was sure he was around here somewhere, but he'd found the queen. He stepped out of the shades with the veratus and moved quickly towards the house, today was going to be a fruitful day indeed....

The bell rung signalling the end of the days lessons, and also breaking into the train of thoughts that were going round in Jason's head. He stood up stretching his frame and picking up his bag, he still felt the roughness of the gem through his pocket, somehow, he'd gotten close to the gem, like it was a part of him. Stepping out the classroom door, he saw terra and daren waiting by his locker side, they had been the only thing that made him want to face the next day, terra particularly, but it looked like somehow, they'd been keeping secrets from him, secrets of him.

He got to his locker as they stepped aside for him to open it,

 "so, what do you want to talk about?" he asked,

terra motioned for them to get going. They were well out of the school range when terra spoke up,

"so, has your aunt ever told you anything about your heritage?, birth?" she asked,

"No, nothing at all, why?" He replied,

"So you don't know where you came from, no memories of Aratia?" Daren asked,

"Daren!, not now!" Terra chided him,

"No, and what's aratia?" Jason countered,

Terra moved in the front of Jason, her eyes gleaming at him,

"My full name is terra rectir, first born of the house rectir." She said drawing the sleeve of her right arm up to expose a tattoo of a leopard, Jason rose an eyebrow up stating he was oblivious to what she was saying,

"What our friend here is trying to say" daren said, "is that we're from another world, aratia to be exact, and we're your guardians, actually I'm your guardian and she's meant to be your b-"

"Trainer!, your guardian stroke trainer" she said cutting him off from finishing his speech.

Jason waited for them to tell him they were joking but they never did, they stared at him with the same seriousness that they did when he told them of the gem, he cleared his throat,

"You seriously don't expect me to believe tha-AAAH!!!" He screamed midway through his speech as Daren's face changed from his to him, he looked at terra who controlled an energy ball in her hand and was rolling her eyes at Daren's who was laughing his heart out when he saw the expression on Jason's face.

He stepped back in fright, it looked hard to believe and also amazing to witness, terra stepped forward,

"I know it’s had to believe but we need to know if you've noticed any changes in your body?" She asked,

The bath water cooling this morning he thought, he knew that was not the tub doing it, he nodded to them as they waited for him to continue,

"The bath always managed to become cool in a matter of seconds after it released a gush of hot water, aunt always said it was the tap" he said as daren snickered in reply, terra only nodded in acceptance.

They walked on silently allowing him to get used to the fact after they told him that he was a prince and was to bring back balance to their realm against the goddess of storms?, and her protégé,

"So this mar..."

"Marxis, marxis tregroff" terra completed for him,

"He killed my father?" He said, they only shot him sympathetic glances and looked away, he didn't take offence in that,

"What about my mom?" He asked,

"That is for your aunt to explain" daren replied,

"Why?"

"It's a bit complicated" terra said,

All His life he had looked for answers about his life and now he got them from people who were not even his family!, his mind remembered what the guardian said,

"Hey, what's ikir?, " he asked,

" it means my king in our language" terra replied,

He thought about it, the last thing the guardian saw was him, great!, and they expected him to lead them on a wild revolution.

His house loomed in front as they got closer, daren stopped suddenly, he smelt the air around them. He looked at terra with a vicious look as he began to transform into a tall heavy wolf,

"Veratus!" He said before his mouth became a snout, terra stepped in front of him, energy moulded around her hands into blades,

"Stay behind me ikir" she said, her voice sounding mechanical, he'd never seen her this serious before, how was he sure he even knew the real terra?.

They got to his door and knocked as it swung lazily open, strange, she always locked the door, he thought. Daren was nowhere to be found as he entered the house, the curtains were drawn, the light was out and the room had a kind of pungent smell, sulphur? He thought, only the light emanating from the blades of terra gave him a way to pass. He saw a huddled frame near the wall and in a moment, dashed over to the structure he knew to be his aunt, despite pleadings from terra,

" aunt Elise?!" He called shaking her, she only mumbled a few words when a thick chuckle resonated around the room, terra turned her blades to meet a pair of sharp canines and a man who smiled devilishly,

"Hello ikir" he said,